-- NOT--
On to the actual dental work, I had been in a couple of weeks before to have an old silver filling replaced but when he got under the filling he saw that there was damage under it and I would need a root canal. He went ahead and placed a temporary cap on and told me to come back. The work needed would take about three hours. I then rescheduled and came back today. Well the work was time consuming but not at all painful. The problem was that he attempted to put a dental dam in my mouth, which lasted about five minutes when I had a panic attack. Well that was the end of that and it made the rest of the procedure, which should have been easy and painless, very difficult. Once I have a bout of claustrophobia, then any little thing can set it off again. So I not only needed to have the dam taken off but also ended up taking off my glasses, my sweater, and in the end my shoes. It wasn't an easy case of taking them all off at once but of me having to stop him every ten or fifteen minutes to deal with my panic, calming down, and then removing something before he could continue. Both the doctor and his assistant were very patient with me, which I greatly appreciated. This is not something that happens to me on a regular basis. The last time that I can remember having a claustrophobic attack was back at university in the mid 1980's. The rest of the procedure went as expected. Once he got through the preliminary work.
Well besides all of that my dentist is only a few blocks from where I live which is really convenient, but today was the beginning of the biggest, well also the first snow storm of the year. Really it is the first real snow storm we have had in about three years. We had been getting the benefit of "El Nino" but that seems to now have worn off. So I had to walk up to the dentist and I do mean up, his office is up one of the steepest hills in the city, in driving snow. This is not something I really minded since this was the first snow and when I dress properly and am physically comfortable I really enjoy walking in new snow. The hard part was walking back. It was all down hill and very slippery. I must say that I get a perverse joy out of watching stupid people with ill equipped cars try to make it up this hill. If they had any brains they would have gone over about four blocks to a street that has a much kinder incline. I know what you are saying, if I am so smart why didn't I take that route. Well four blocks one way or the other isn't much if you are driving and if you can't make it up a hill then you will be forced to go around which you should have done any way but if you are on foot four blocks out of your way end up being eight blocks and that is a real inconvenience. Also a hill that a car can not make it up is just some added difficulty and caution for a person walking, it is not a case of the impossible.
ciao
